During the 1980's, the video cassette recorder ("VCR") rapidly became a standard component of the entertainment centres of most North American, European and Japanese households as its price dropped dramatically. The majority of VCR's in use are of the VHS format. Due to the prevalence of VCR's, it has become commonplace for individuals to send greetings, messages and the like through the mails in the form of pre-recorded video cassettes. Greeting card manufacturers have noted this trend and have begun to offer pre-recorded video Christmas greetings and the like in the form of pre-recorded video cassettes. Similarly direct mail advertisers are increasingly using pre-recorded video cassettes as a medium for direct mail advertising.
The use of video cassettes as a direct mail advertising medium is very expensive, not only because of the manufacturing costs of the video cassettes, but primarily because of mailing costs since standard VHS cassettes are too heavy and large to qualify for regular envelope or bulk postal rates. A standard VHS video cassette is one-inch thick and weighs 6.5 oz. without tape, and 8.3 oz. with tape. The VHS tape itself is only 1/2-inch wide, however the standard recorder requires the one-inch thick cassette to operate. In Canada, the postal rate to mail a standard VHS cassette is currently $3.90, compared to the bulk rate for standard business mail of $0.24. In the United States, the bulk rate is 16 cents per piece, while items over 4 oz., such as standard VHS cassettes, go to 60 cents. There is a further problem with standard VHS cassettes as a direct mailing medium on that they do not fit readily through many mail slots.
While cardboard, hardboard or wooden video cassettes have been attempted to reduce the weight of the cassettes and thus the postal costs, such cassettes are easily crushed in the mail and are not reliable to operate once received by the user. They tend to cause dust or cardboard particles to contaminate the VCR. Consequently advertisers are reluctant to commit their reputation to such products. Further such cardboard cassettes are the same dimensions as standard VHS cassettes and so do not benefit from the reduced postal rates in countries such as Canada which base rates on dimensions, and have the same problems fitting through mail slots.
There is therefore a need for a reduced thickness and weight mailing video cassette which can operate in standard VHS VCR's.